The Calamus Collection
by Shira Lansys
Summary: Calamus: A quill or reed used as a pen. The stories of Albus and Scorpius in ficlet form. COMPLETE
1. Awkward

"Why won't you look me in the eye?" Scorpius asks. His voice is smaller than Albus has ever heard it, and it's almost lost in the roaring winds that gust around the Astronomy Tower. He looks up quickly, before looking down again, a red flush in his cheeks that has nothing to do with the biting cold.

"I do look you in the eye," he mutters. Scorpius doesn't hear him, so he has to repeat it, louder this time.

"No you don't. You don't even look _at _me, sometimes. You stare over my shoulder. You have ever since you… since you… _walked in_."

And that was the crux of the matter, Albus thinks. Because Scorpius is right; no matter how much Albus lies and pretends everything's fine, he can't look at his best friend properly.

"I thought you were okay with me," Scorpius says after a while. "With me, you know…."

He doesn't have to say with what.

"Merlin, Scorpius, is that what you think?" Albus asks. "I swear to you, I _am _fine with it. Even if I don't like Daniel, I'm okay with you liking boys and stuff. It's just… I wasn't prepared to see that."

That is a half-truth. Being prepared isn't the problem; the problem is that Albus hadn't been prepared to _like _it. He'd thought that, when he'd taken an instant dislike to Scorpius' boyfriend, Daniel, it had been because the boy had some faults, such as talking a little too much and being generally annoying in inexplicable ways. He had never considered the idea that he might be jealous.

Then, last week, he'd accidentally walked in on Scorpius and Daniel having sex. And he didn't just walk in on them partially naked, or even fully naked. They were full on fucking.

It had aroused Albus more than he'd thought possible.

And now, every time he looks at Scorpius, he has to wonder if he isn't as gay as his best friend. Every time he speaks to him, he faces the possibility that he has a huge crush on the blond. Every time he gazes into those stormy grey eyes, he wishes it had been him with Scorpius' cock up his arse rather than up Daniels.

It would make any friendship a little strained.

Scorpius doesn't look appeased by this explanation. "Honestly," Albus assures him. "It would be the same if I caught you with a girl. It's just… awkward."

Which isn't totally a lie, but he's painfully aware it isn't the full truth either.

"Well you'd better hurry up and get over it then," Scorpius tells him, a tinge of annoyance in his voice. Albus doesn't blame him. "I feel like we're not really friends anymore." Then his voice turns small again and he adds quietly, "I miss you."

Albus' heart leaps and he has to fight to to supress it. He manages to pass it off as a shiver – after all, the air out above the castle is more than a little chilly. "I'm sorry," he replies. _'I miss you, too,'_ is the unspoken words that hang between them.

Suddenly, he wonders madly whether he should tell Scorpius. It would be such a relief to get it off his chest and – he quells a leap of excitement in his stomach – Scorpius might possibly return his feelings. But then Scorpius says, "Shit, your lips are turning blue. We should head back inside…," and the moment is lost.

Another time, Albus thinks, as Scorpius pulls him to his feet.

Sometime in an extremely distant future.


	2. Ordinary

**Title: Ordinary  
Author: FeatheredxWings  
Rating: K  
Word Count: 378  
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor its characters; this fanfiction is not written for profit.  
A/N: Inspired by the movie "American Beauty"**

* * *

"Scorp?" Albus said one day as they lay beside the lake, staring up at the bright blue sky. Scorpius' hands were unconsciously playing with Albus' hair, running themselves gently through the fine, dark strands. "What if we leave school and we become… ordinary?"

"Ordinary?" Scorpius frowned.

"Yeah," Al replied. "Like, we get jobs in the ministry of magic and spend all our days working nine to five, and on Christmas we meet up with our families and we never go on any adventures. What if we just sit at home and be boring?"

Scorpius raised himself up on one elbow. "Al," he said seriously. "Albus Potter, you have the names of the first and the last name of two of the greatest wizards that history will ever know. And your second-name namesake wasn't exactly a simple bloke either."

"You sound like my father," Albus grinned.

"Your father might be right, in this matter," Scorpius replied.

"My names don't mean anything though," Albus said, wriggling closer to Scorpius so he could wrap his arm around the other boy's waist and pull him to the ground, where he promptly rested his head on the blonde's chest. "It doesn't guarantee that I'll do anything great – or interesting. I could just as easily live a boring life with my name as if I were named Furts Gumwimble."

Scorpius laughed. "That's not much of an ordinary name either." Then he became more serious. "Al, you couldn't be ordinary or boring if you tried."

Albus opened his mouth to argue but, before he could do so, Scorpius leant down and kissed him. Al struggled for a moment, not happy that he wasn't allowed to talk, but soon gave into the kiss.

Scorpius pulled away after a while and looked down on Albus fondly. "Besides, do you really think your family would let us just sit at home and only visit for Christmas? Their visits alone would be adventures in themselves."

He reached out and entwined his fingers with Al's, his eyes dancing with mirth. They lay there in silence, beneath the afternoon sun, for another few minutes.

"I suppose," the dark haired boy said after a while, "that even if I was ordinary, I'd still have you. That wouldn't be so bad."

Scorpius smiled.


	3. Letters

Albus came out to his parents in seventh year. He'd been sitting on the decision for a while, and when Scorpius kissed him passionately in the middle of the entrance hall and confessed his love for him, Albus figured he'd better do it quickly before Lily got there first.

He did it by letter. A little tacky, maybe, but it worked out alright.

_Dear Mum and Dad, _

_I'm gay. _

_Love from Albus. _

He got his reply a few days later, written in his mother's tidy handwriting.

_Dear Albus,_

_That's lovely, sweetie. _

_Will you and Lily be coming home for Christmas? Because you're Aunt Murial survived the summer and now we have to have her to stay. If you're both coming home, you'll need to sleep in James's room._

_Love Mum and Dad. _

Albus checked with Lily and wrote his reply.

_Dear Mum and Dad, _

_Lily wants to go home for Christmas, but James is a prat so I'll stay here. Give my love to Aunt Murial. _

_Also, I'm in love with Scorpius Malfoy._

_Love from Albus._

Their reply arrives Christmas morning. This time, he could tell that his Dad had written it.

_Dear Albus,_

_That's nice. I've enclosed a Christmas present for him too. It was a little rushed; you should have given your mother more warning! _

_Have a nice Christmas, _

_Love Mum and Dad_

"Your parents are so much nicer than mine," Scorpius says as they read the letter together, munching on Albus' chocolates.

"Yeah, but the rest of my family is insane," Albus says. "So it sort of balances itself out."


	4. Coffee

"Large mocha, please," Scorpius drawls elegantly at the pretty muggle girl behind the counter. Albus rolls his eyes; his boyfriend is such a flirt.

"Sure thing," the girl says chirpily, taking his money and giving him change in return. The don't have to wait long; it's only a few minutes before their drinks are ready. "Here's you're hot chocolate-" she hands a steaming mug to Albus "-and here's you're _extra large_ mocha, sir." She winks at Scorpius flirtatiously.

Scorpius leans forwards as he takes the drink from her. "You know," he says, "this drink isn't the only thing of mine that's _extra large_."

Albus grabs him by the arm and jerks him away, almost causing Scorpius to spill his coffee. "He's lying," he informs the grinning girl as he drags his boyfriend towards the exit. "I've seen it, and it's average at best." As they exit, he kisses Scorpius on the lips, somewhat possessively, and can't help thinking, _'There, that should give her the right idea.' _

"You know," Scorpius says, after Albus pulls away and they quickly exit the coffee shop, "I think I quite like it when you're jealous."

"I'm not jealous," he says calmly. "I know you don't really fancy her. I just want her to know that she doesn't have a chance."

"Some would say that's jealousy."

"Some would say that it's stating my claim."

Scorpius smirks. "How about after we finish this coffee we go home and you can claim me some more?"

Maybe they don't quite get around to drinking their beverages that night.


	5. Falling Behind

_You say you wanna move on and  
You say I'm falling behind_

The Killers – Read My Mind

"He won't understand," Scorpius says. His voice is partially pleading, but also contains a tone of warning. "You know he won't."

"We don't know anything," Albus argues. "Not until you tell him. My dad took it fine, didn't he?"

Scorpius laughs humourlessly. "Your father is very different to mine," he tells Albus.

"Look, Scorpius," Albus says, taking his boyfriend's hands gently. "It's true that he _might _not approve, and that he _might _not accept it. But we can't know until we try, right? And we have to tell him sometime."

Scorpius notes the pronoun Albus uses and takes comfort from the fact that no matter what, his boyfriend was with him in this. "I suppose," he agrees reluctantly.

"Besides," Albus adds more cheerfully. "Aren't you sick of hiding this from him? Of hiding who you are?"

Scorpius looks at Albus's earnest expression and sighs. How can he deny him anything? "I'll tell him when we go home for the holidays," he says. "This probably isn't something I should say in a letter."

His concern for what would happen when he told his father must have shown on his face because Albus wraps his arms around his shoulder in a brief but gentle hug. "It'll be fine," he whispers.

Scorpius hopes so.

**A/N: This will be the last ficlet for this collection as I am wrapping up (as much as possible) all my fanfictions and posting the last I've written due to the fact I am withdrawing from . Thank you very much to all my readers and reviewers – you've kept me writing on this site for over three years now, and I could never have got this far without you. Thanks to you, my writing has improved dramatically and I've posted over 300,000 words – a feat I never could have accomplished without your support. A special shout out to Quill Scribblings, who always reviewed everything I posted and often left very detailed feedback. Thank you!**


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